Her heart panted for a moment with a wild indignation; but she quieted
herself, and answered almost calmly: "If you refuse to do that which is
honourable--and human, then I shall try to do it for you while yet I bear
your name. If you will not care for your family honour, then I shall try
to do so. If you will not do your duty, then I will try to do it for
you." She looked him determinedly in the eyes. "Through you I have lost
nearly all I cared to keep in the world. I should like to feel that in
this one thing you acted honourably."

He sprang to his feet, bursting with anger, in spite of the inward
admonition that much that he prized was in danger, that any breach with
Hylda would be disastrous. But self-will and his native arrogance
overruled the monitor within, and he said: "Don't preach to me, don't
play the martyr. You will do this and you will do that! You will save
my honour and the family name! You will relieve Claridge Pasha, you will
do what Governments choose not to do; you will do what your husband
chooses not to do--Well, I say that you will do what your husband
chooses to do, or take the consequences."

"I think I will take the consequences," she answered. "I will save
Claridge Pasha, if it is possible. It is no boast. I will do it, if it
can be done at all, if it is God's will that it should be done; and in
doing it I shall be conscious that you and I will do nothing together
again--never! But that will not stop me; it will make me do it, the last
right thing, before the end."

She was so quiet, so curiously quiet. Her words had a strange solemnity,
a tragic apathy. What did it mean? He had gone too far, as he had done
before. He had blundered viciously, as he had blundered before.